Myrtle Beach, with its pristine shoreline, fairground attraction and immaculate golf courses, is known as a major holiday destination in the US south. But for the city’s poorest residents – 23% of people here live below the poverty line – the prospect of a direct hit from Hurricane Florence served only as a reminder of the city’s economic and racial inequality.

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“If anything happens to my home I just have to stay right where I am,” said 52-year-old Angela Smith, an African American Sandygate Village resident who was also disabled and unemployed. “I can’t afford to own a car, so I literally can’t leave.”

Instead, she said, she would rely on the tight bonds she had forged with other members of the community. “We all get along here. We all support each other in times like this.”

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